When he was almost to the door Severus called out, "Don't worry Mr. Potter Miss Wallwirt will be up by 9:45. I think an hour and 15 minutes should be enough."

He nodded and left closing the door behind him quietly.

Once he was gone Severus asked, "Well Jessica what do you want to make? I'm sure you have something. I hope your detention wasn't too bad. I couldn't have you do no work after publicly giving you detention and having Potter and Malfoy here so I hope sorting potions wasn't too bad. "

I smiled and said, "Yep. I want to try the hard version of Amortentia. Not the kind you'll teach later this year and it's no problem. I get it. "

He nodded and said, "Okay you can start then. I'll watch and correct if it's even needed. Both of which are unnecessary."

I gave him an embarrassed grin and watched the corner of his mouth turn up slightly. For the next hour and ten minutes I worked on the potion.

Once I had bottled it up I asked, "Can I keep this? I want to see if it will work on Lucky."

He smirked and said sarcastically, "Yeah sure on Lucky. Who are you trying to make fall in love with you Jessica?"

I rolled my eyes at him and said, "You are so immature. I just want to see if it works."

Had I been honest I would've said that it's because I just wanted to take it and smell it. I knew the things you smelled when you caught a whiff of a love potion where supposed to be the things you loved most. I smelled flowers, lavender to be exact, salt water, a cologne that smelled exactly like Severus but I also smelled another cologne that I couldn't quite place. I wanted to know what it was but I couldn't tell Severus that.  

He said, "Of course. Just don't let anyone get that. It looks perfect which means that it is really dangerous in the wrong hands."

"Of course."

After that we said goodbye and I went back to the Gryffindor common room. I walked in to find Harry Ron and Hermione waiting for me. When I came in I was bombarded with questions.

"What happened once I left?" Harry asked.

"Did he really say that he pretended to favor Draco?" Ron asked.

I held my hands up to stop them and said, "Well I just brewed a potion," I held up the potion and addressed the next question, "Yeah he said that he has to pretend to favor Malfoy. It didn't sound like he likes him at all."

' "That's awesome," exclaimed.

"Maybe he is nicer than we thought. Harry said he was even being a little nice. He gave you the easy job and gave Malfoy the hard dirty ones."

I nodded and said, "Yeah he was being surprisingly nice."

Ron said, "I'll believe Snape is being nice when I see it for myself."

I nodded and said, "So if he was nice in class you would believe us then?"

He said, "Not that I don't trust you guys. It's just hard to believe.

"Yeah same here. If he's even a little nicer tomorrow it will make class so much more enjoyable," Hermione said.

"I'm sure he will be," I said already coming up with a plan in my mind, "Well I need to get to bed. I'm supposed to meet Oliver on the Quidditch pitch at 6 so I'll have to wake up sorta early."

They nodded and Hermione said, "I think I'll come with you. I am rather tired too."

The two of us walked up to the first year's dormitory and went to sleep quickly.

The next morning I woke up at 5:30 and without a sound went into the bathroom. I emerged 10 minutes later with my teeth and hair brushed, sporty robes on and my hair pulled up into a long brown ponytail.

I eased the door open and made my way down the Gryffindor common room. Glancing at my watch for a time check I saw I had about 15 minutes to get to the Quidditch pitch. That would give me plenty of time to get there. With a stifled yawn I made my way out of the Fat Lady portrait and down the stairs. I went through the doors to outside and made my way to the Quidditch field. As I approached I saw several kids already there.

I made my way over to Oliver and he said, "For today we'll test you out on the school broom but eventually you'll need your own broom."

I nodded and said, "I'll get one."

He smiled and said, "We're just waiting on the Weasleys now"

I asked, "Fred and George are on the team?"

He nodded and said, "Yeah they're the beaters."

I laughed and said, "Well that's a perfect matchup. They're like human bludgers."

He smiled and said, "Yep. They're great. Those bludgers never stand a chance."

Suddenly two familiar red-head boys came up behind Oliver and said together, "Hey Oliver."

He turned around and said, "Okay great you're here. Now we can start trying out our new seeker."

He motioned for everyone to come in close and said, "This is Jessica Wallwirt. McGonagall tells me she is a natural seeker so I wanted to try her out with the rest of the team."

They all nodded and we all mounted our brooms. Oliver had gotten me one from the equipment shed for the time being but I knew I would need a new broom.

For the next hour we all flew around making intricate patterns that Oliver had come up with. He would toss small heavy balls at me while I was flying and I didn't miss a single one.

Finally he yelled, "I'm going to let the Snitch go, just try to catch it. Everything else will be in chaos like in a real game."

I nodded and he reached inside his robes and came out with a small golden ball. He let it go and it immediately grew wings.

I flew toward it. Suddenly it turned down sharply and I followed. It was staying about 2 feet off the ground so I stood up shakily on my broom. I jumped out and caught it before going into a forward roll.

Everyone came down and started to congratulate me, "That was amazing. McGonagall was right. You're on the team," Oliver said.

I smiled widely and said, "Dumbledore still needs to approve but I'm sure he will."

Wood nodded and said, "Well I'll see you at our next practice. I don't know when it will be but I'll find a way to get you the message."

I nodded and walked with the rest of the team back into the castle and up to the Gryffindor common room. From there I followed a black haired girl named Angelina up to the girl's dormitories. We each went into the dorm for our age.

Once inside I changed into class robes and brushed through my hair quickly. No one else was in the dormitory which meant everyone was at breakfast already. It was nearly 7:30 so I hurried down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

I walked in and sat next to Harry facing Ron and Hermione. Neville and Seamus had gone to sit with some of their other friends.

"So how did practice go?" questioned Ron eagerly.

I smiled widely and said, "Really great. They made me a member of the team officially. Once Dumbledore agrees everything will be in order then all I'll need to do is get a broom."

Harry said, "Wow that's great."

I nodded and we ate until breakfast was almost over. We sat there laughing and joking around with each other.

Suddenly I had a thought and said, "I'll meet up with you guys at Transfiguration. I need to go and ask Professor Snape something from last night."

The three of them looked at each other and Harry held up the small vial from last night, "Is this the potion from last night?"'

I said, "Yes but how did you get it?"'

Ron said, "Well you were being all secretive so Hermione nicked it from your bag last night while you were sleeping. Then she recognized it as a love potion so I guess the question is who were you going to use this on?"

I rolled my eyes and said, "No one. It's a hard potion to make so I asked if I could take it and study it more."

Hermione said sarcastically, "Sure. We're going to hold on to this so you can't make anyone fall in love with you."

I shrugged and said with a smile, "Sure go ahead. Well I still have to go so bye. Don't let Snape see you with that cause I told him no one else would be able to have it."

They nodded but I still thought they looked suspicious. Shaking it off I walked at a brisk pace to the dungeons. I hadn't seen Severus at breakfast and that worried me slightly. More than that I needed to ask him for a broom.

Going straight to his office instead of his classroom I knocked. There was no answer and I immediately became more worried. I tried the handle on the door but it was locked. Figuring this was an emergency I muttered Alohomora under my breath and walked in.

When I entered the room I put a hand to my mouth and my eyes widened. Severus was lying on the floor asleep and there were cuts all over him. I looked near him and saw a knife not that far away bloodied.

I raced over to him and felt for a pulse. As soon as I felt a soft but steady heartbeat I let out a sigh of relief. I didn't want to perform a spell on him without him being awake,

I grabbed his hand and stroked his face softly saying, "Severus wake up."

Realizing that my efforts did nothing I said louder, "Wake up."

With a start Severus opened his eyes and said, "What's going on?"

I said, "I don't know. Why don't you let me clean you up then you can tell me," my voice was a little accusatory and I immediately felt bad.

He nodded and as I said the spells to get rid of his cuts and bruises he winced in obvious pain. Once I was sure he was okay I conjured up a couch and eased him into it. I sat next to him staring at him in fear.

He sighed and said, "Don't look at me like I'm already dead."

I snapped, "Well you could have been."

He lowered his head and put a hand around my shoulder, "You won't be rid of me that easily."

I glared at him and asked, "What happened? I came in here and saw you passed out on the floor bleeding."

"I was?" he asked.

I nodded and said, "I came to ask something and I freaked out."

He smiled softly and said, "I must have drank too much. No matter now though."

He tried to stand up but was too dizzy too. He fell back down into the couch and he looked furious.

"It does matter. You don't just get cut up when you drink too much."

He looked at me then to the door. With a resigned expression he closed the door with a spell.

He turned back to me and said, "You have to promise not to get mad okay? I can't have you getting hurt or doing something irrational."

I shook my head and said, "I'm not promising anything."

He looked taken aback by my answer and said, "Fine but you probably won't believe me."

"Anything is better than what I am thinking of."

He looked at me nervously which only increased my worry, "Well your mother came last night."

He drew back waiting for me to get angry. For a minute my expression went blank and then I started to shake violently.

He looked panicked for a moment then pulled me into a hug whispering, "It's okay."

I was still shaking when I asked, "Why was she here?" my voice was muffled by his robes.

He thought for a moment then said, "She wanted to take you back. She said she needed someone to do everything around the house again."

I started to cry while shaking and asked, "How did she get in?"

He said, "She is a witch. Only she hates magic which is why she hated me and you. I think she was trying to distance herself from the wizarding world although I don't know why."

"Did she come to the dungeons?"

I looked up to see him nod and say, "Apparently Mr. Filch let her in because she knew the visitor code. I still haven't figured out how though. Then she was able to make her way here last night about an hour after you left."

I pulled back and wiped my face even though I was still shaking and more tears were falling, "What happened once she came in?"

He said, "Well naturally she got mad at me and said I took her daughter away from her and made you hate her. Then it turns out that she knows a lot of good magic. I wasn't expecting it and she was able to disarm me and let out all her anger."

"So she did do this to you?" I asked even though I knew the answer.

He nodded and said, "Then there was a noise in the hall and she left out the window over there," pointing at a window that was broken.

I said, "This is all my fault. If I hadn't gone to live with you and if I hadn't come to Hogwarts then she wouldn't have came here and- and hurt you!" I started to cry even harder.

Severus said sternly but softly, "This is not your fault Jessica. Had you not come to live with me you would be in the woods still and probably dead by this point."

I sobbed, "I don't care. It's all my fault and I'm just going back."

He said louder, "No you aren't going back there. Look I'm fine there's no need to get upset."

At this I stopped crying slightly startled and yelled, "NO NEED TO GET UPSET!? I walked in here and it looked like you were dead and you want me to not get upset?"

He said softly, "That isn't what I meant and you know it. Now look at me I'm fine and that woman is gone, it's okay."

At this I started to cry and buried my face in his robes, "She could come back. If she got in once what's to say she won't again?"

"If she does I'll be ready. You have nothing to worry about."

"Are you sure you're all better?" I asked.

"Yes I'm fine now. Thanks to you."

I smiled and said, "I'm glad you're okay."

"So am I. That spell you used on me, does it not work on your scars?"

I replied, "No it doesn't. It's only good for if they aren't that old. I can't find one that will get rid of scars but I don't care. I just wear long sleeves all the time and don't let anyone see me change."

"Good. I'll research it later tonight."

"No you won't. You are going to stay here and rest all day," I said sternly.

He looked at me pointedly and said, "I have classes to teach today. I need to do that and I have other things to do. There is no reason for me to stay in bed when I am already fine."

"You're obviously tired so you need to rest. Besides that I can take care of your classes, knowing you, you probably already have lesson plans."

"You also have classes to go to. One of them that starts in about 10 minutes."

"I don't need to go to them. I'll tell my professors I am taking over your classes."

"No, I will not have it," he argued.

"I don't care. You are going to stay here and rest."

He sighed and said, "Fine but I'm not happy about it."

I smiled and said, "Great let's get you to your bedroom so I can tell my professors I won't be there and get ready for the first class."

"Be careful. I have classes with students much older than you. They might not be willing to listen to you."

With a smirk I said, "Well then when they hand in a terrible potion you'll just fail them so it doesn't matter. I'll tell them I'm your best student and they should listen to me."

"That's not going to work. They will ask where I am. What do you plan on telling them?"

I rolled my eyes and said, "I'm as scary as you are when I'm mad or annoyed. I'm pretty sure they won't ask."

He smirked and said, "Okay go and tell your professors then."

"Not before I make sure you are safely in bed."

It looked like he was about to argue but then said, "Okay."

I spent the next couple minutes helping Severus to his bed. I got him the paper as he insisted I leave.

As I was leaving I said, "I'll see you later Dad."

I closed the door, but not before I saw a very surprised father. I grabbed the lesson plans off his desk. I smirked to myself then made my way up quickly to tell all my professors I wouldn't be in their class.